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WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:13 PM Page i -^ HN .--V», ' A agazine of history WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:14 PM Page ii -^ Why net wrap up your holiday 6hcppins early thU year? 4^ herships tor the holidays! It's an easy choice to give a gift that Give Individual memberships you already enjoy and value. Plus, for only $30 (regularly $45) we're making it even easier by offering Give Household memberships members a big 33% holiday discount for only $40 (regularly $60) on gift memberships. Your recipients will receive a special holiday greeting announcing your gift and will enjoy terrific member benefits all year long—including Wisconsin Magazine of History, pwrc/iase discounts, Columns newsletter and discounted admission at historic sites and museums. Discount valid until 12/31/10. Offer valid on new memberships only. WISCONSIN Order at history, giftmemberships HISTORICAL SOCIETY or toll-free at 1.888.748.7479 WMoHwinIO 11/2/10 9:48AM Page 1 -^ WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY Division Administrator & State Historic Preservation Officer Michael E. Stevens Editorial Director Kathryn L. Borkowski Editor Jane M. de Broux Managing Editor Diane T. Drexler Research and Editorial Assistants Jesse J. Gant, Joel Heiman, Mike Nemer, John Nondorf, dVfTTU^ B^ffl 2 The "Snow Shoe Priest"on JohnZimm ^^ 1HH I [J |. 1HKH B Madeline Island Designer Archaeology at Frederick Baraga's Zucker Design _S2^j>r^,,r 1 > jBffli Indian Mission THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534), t ^^ft published quarterly, is a benefit of full membership in the by Robert A. Birmingham Wisconsin Historical Society. '"^jmM Kfe *'* Full membership levels start at $45 for individuals and $65 for 14 The MacArthurs and institutions. To join or for more information, visit our Web site at The Mitchells wisconsinhistory.org/membership or contact the Membership \ \ 11 .. Office at 888-748-7479 or e-mail whsmemberiawisconsinhistory.org. Wisconsin's First Military Families by Jeffrey J. McLean 4^ The Wisconsin Magazine of History has been published quarterly since 1917 by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Copyright ©2010 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 28 Helene Stratman-Thomas ISSN 0043-6534 (print) Wisconsin Songcatcher ISSN 1943-7366 (online) by Eriliajanili For permission to reuse text from the Wisconsin Magazine of His tory, (ISSN 0043-6534), please access www.copyright.com or con tact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, 38 "Nothing more than a tradition' Danvers, MA, 01923,978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organiza John Nelligan in the Wisconsin tion that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. Pinery For permission to reuse photographs from the Wisconsin Magazine by John Zimm of History, identified with WHi or WHS contact: Visual Materials Archivist, 816 State Street, Madison,WI, 53706. The Wisconsin Magazine of History, welcomes the submission of 50 BOOK EXCERPT articles and image essays. Contributor guidelines can be found on Barns of Wisconsin the Wisconsin Historical Society website at wisconsinhistory.org/ wmh/contribute.asp. by Jerry Apps photographs by Steve Apps The Wisconsin Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. 55 Hesseltine Announcement Periodicals postage paid at Madison, Wl 53706-1417. Back issues, if available, are $8.95 plus postage (888-999-1669). 56 Curio Microfilmed copies are available through UMI Periodicals in Microfilm, part of National Archive Publishing, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106, www.napubco.com. On the front cover: A large load of logs beginning the journey to the sawmill. WHI IMAGE ID 77344 VOLUME 94, NUMBER 2 / WINTER 2010 WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:14 PM Page 3 -^ ^^^^^'^ THE "SNOW SHOE PRIEST" Om MADELINE ISLAND ''PN< ARCH. iLOGYAT rFREDERICK BARAGA:^^,I^TAN MISSION m^/M.^/, BY ROBERT A. BIRMINGHAM L^!?7^ N^ ne hundred and seventy-five year^^go, Madeline Island in Lake Superior was a commercial center for the western Great Lakes region, undergoing economic, social, and even religious change. Only a few decades earlier, a British flag had flown over its small settlement, and before that it had been one of the centers of the fur trade in New France, the territory claimed by the French that consisted of southeast Canada, the Great Lakes region, and the Mississippi River Valley. But the European demand for furs had waned, and the island's principal business, the American Fur Company, began 1 1 ^hifting to commercial fishing, shipping out hundreds of barrels of fish as well "'' fJ^s packs of fur.' The island settlement, also known as La Pointe, changed loca- i^^'j-^ii^pi^^ion in 1835. It moved north from Grant's Point, where it had served generations \ Xz^r of canoe-paddling voyageurs and Native American traders, to a deeper and bet- /' W\ ^^ ter£^<^teqted^3iY-.xd(^^l.^x laj.g.ef,J:)oat|S at thp presqjj^c^^y village pf^^ Pointe. liWiRj^rhttaN •6 .4 1 BglWBBHEiai WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:14 PM Page 4 -^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY ^liS 4^ La Pointe, Madeline Island, ca. 1842 The island population consisted of Ojibwe and those of them of most of their lands. Madeline Island was the place mixed Native American and French-Canadian ancestry fre where thousands gathered in the years between 1838 and 1854 quently referred to as metis. ^ The Ojibwe of the Chequamegon to collect annuities—payments made in the form of cash, Bay area, called the La Pointe Band, had long maintained set goods, and food. tlements and camps on the island they call Moningwu- Amidst this flurry of activity, a remarkable holy man—a liv nakauning (Island of the Golden-breasted Woodpecker), which ing saint to some—appeared on the shore of the island in 1835. plays a central role in Ojibwe tradition. Some versions of the He distributed gifts to the Indian people and spoke to them in Ojibwe migration story identify Madeline Island as the end of their own language. A Catholic missionary. Father Frederick a long journey from far to the east, and it is depicted as a megis Baraga had come to attend to the souls of the Ojibwe—the flrst or seashell on some birch bark scrolls used in sacred rituals. priest to be assigned permanendy to the region since the Jesuits Members or priests of the tribal-wide Midewiwin or Grand left in 1665. Medicine Society met here and carried out sacred ceremonies Baraga wasted no time. Within seven days of his arrival, he and rituals well into the nineteenth century. According to one built a simple log church. Within months, he had baptized over Ojibwe tradition, the Midewiwin originated on Madeline one hundred people. He started a school, and over the next Island. several years he built cabins for converts and established a Unfortunately, as time went on the island became a much cemetery next to the church. Baraga's was the second mission less hospitable place for the Ojibwe. The demise of the fur on the island, as Presbyterian missionaries from the Boston- trade left the Ojibwe in a desperate situation, since it was the based American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions primary source for the many manufactured goods they relied had been there since 1830. Baraga boldly placed his mission upon. Traders advanced credit for items of necessity against within eyesight of the Protestants, located one quarter of a mile diminishing fur returns, often leaving the Indians in debt. At to the south, prompting the clergy to complain to Indian agent the same time, the United States government began pressuring Henry Schoolcraft about this "encroachment" on their mis the Ojibwe to sign the treaties that would eventually deprive sionary fields.' wisconsinhistory.org WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:14 PM Page 5 -^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Bishop Frederick Baraga, Servant of God Irenaeus Frederick Baraga was born to a life of privilege in 1797 in Slovenia, which was then a part of Austrian Hapsburg Empire.^ He attended law school in Vienna, but gave up his money and station to become a priest. Answering a call for mis sionaries in America, he traveled to Cincinnati in 1831 and then spent several years at Indian missions in Michigan. He rapidly learned native languages, publishing a prayer book in the Ottawa language and later developing the first grammar and dictionary for Ojibwe).' The Leopoldine Society (Leopoldinenstiftung), a Vienna organization formed in 1829 to aid American Catholic mis sions, supported his work in North American, as did wealthy relatives. The Society was named in honor of Austrian Maria Leopoldina, Empress of Brazil and daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. Leopold or Leopoldus (1073-1136) is also the name of the patron saint of Austria and Vienna. ** A year after founding the mission, Baraga traveled back to Europe to raise money. Reports of his missionary work earned St. Joseph Catholic Church, La Pointe, built by Baraga in 1843. him an audience with the pope and receptions with Austrian royalty. Money and supplies in hand, he returned to the island in 1837 and expanded the mission for a rapidly growing con climate of the north did not lend themselves to an economy gregation. Baraga moved a short distance to the new village of based exclusively on agriculture, as subsequent European and La Pointe in 1841, where he built a parish church he named for American immigrants would discover, and Baraga eventually St. Joseph. Using La Pointe as a base, he traveled throughout had to give up on this idea. In 1843, Baraga moved to the mis the Lake Superior country launching other missions. He sion at L'anse, Michigan, and Father Otto SkoUa continued at 4^ earned the nickname "the snowshoe priest" because of his fre La Pointe in his stead.